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Now
Sweden has a penchant for safety and
cleanliness. Swedes invented the Volvo, one of the safest automobiles.
Volvos are built to minimize harm to passengers during accidents,
and they are built without toxic flame retardants. Swedes invented
the safety- match and dynamite too -- much safer than the alternative
it replaced, black powder. Recently, Sweden has become known
for its innovations in sustainable development -- safer development.
Sweden recently declared that
it will create an energy and transportation economy that runs
free of oil by the year 2020. But the groundwork for this radical
declaration was laid in the 1980s by Sweden's eco-municipality
movement, which successfully incorporated sustainability into
municipal planning and development.
Before former Norwegian Prime
Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland became a household name in international
environmental circles, Sweden and Finland were stimulating local
economic growth in ways that were good for people and the planet.
The town of Overtornea -- Sweden's first eco-municipality --
was an early adopter of what we now call sustainable development,
which "meets the needs of the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."[The
Brundtland Report, 1987].
Simultaneously, The Natural
Step (TNS) was being developed by Swedish scientist Karl-Henrik
Robert. The Natural Step began as a way for individual companies
to create more environmentally and socially responsible practices.
And TNS was quickly embraced by Swedish planners, government
officials and residents who wanted to achieve their goals AND
minimize harm to the environment and human health.
The Swedish economist and planner
Torbjorn Lahti was one of the visionaries in Overtornea -- a
town of 5,000 that had 25% unemployment and had lost 20% of its
population during the previous 20 years. Lahti and his colleagues
engaged the community -- getting participation from 10% of residents
-- to create a shared vision of a local economy based on renewable
energy, public transportation, organic agriculture, and rural
land preservation. In 2001 the town became 100% free of fossil
fuels. Public transportation is free. The region is now the largest
organic farming area in Sweden and more than 200 new businesses
have sprung up.
The story of the eco-municipality
movement is documented in the new book, The Natural Step for
Communities; How Cities and Towns can Change to Sustainable Practices
(2004; ISBN 0865714916) written by American planner Sarah James
and Torbjorn Lahti. Today there are more than 60 eco-municipalities
in Sweden -- representing 20 percent of the population -- and
this movement for social and ecological sanity has spread throughout
Norway, Finland and Denmark as well.
Here in North America, cities
like Whistler, British Columbia, Portland, Oregon, and Santa
Monica, California are on the bleeding-green edge with city-wide
master plans in which sustainability is more than just a buzzword.
These cities are making the transition to renewable energy, mass-transit,
green building, zero waste and open-space preservation. As a
report card on Santa Monica's progress shows, they have a long
way to go, especially on the social-justice front, to meet the
Brundtland Report definition of sustainability. But they are
trending in the right direction. They are trying!
What is the Natural Step for
Communities and how does it work?
Like the Precautionary Principle
-- which is another lens for sustainability -- the Natural Step
(TNS) says that the decision-making process must be inclusive
and participatory. TNS recognizes that the communities we live
in will be self-sustaining only when resources are justly distributed.
You can have the greenest buildings, the cleanest energy in the
world, and the best public transportation. But without a just
social system, the community will not achieve sustainability.
The Natural Step has four 'system
conditions' which, when achieved, will create sustainable conditions.
In a sustainable society, nature is not subject to systematically
increasing
1. concentrations of substances
extracted from the Earth's crust;
2. concentrations of substances
produced by society;
3. degradation by physical
means
4. and, in that society human
needs are met.
In other words, we should minimize
harm to the earth and human health; we should use alternatives
to fossil fuels, toxic metals, and other persistent toxic substances.
We should achieve zero waste (or darn near). And we should protect
and restore nature and the ecosystem services it provides. But
most importantly, we should meet basic human needs for food,
shelter, education and healthcare. I would add that basic human
needs include a social environment free of social isolation bred
of racism and classism, an environment that nurtures and respects
everyone.
According to The Natural Step
for Communities, social justice is a prerequisite that will either
allow or prevent the other system conditions from being achieved.
And while TNS for Communities is rich with examples of towns
and cities that have improved their physical and natural environments,
the examples of improved social environments are fewer and less
concrete.
The indigenous Sami people
-- a trans-arctic people living in Norway, Sweden, Finland and
Russia -- are struggling to hold on to their traditional reindeer
herding culture which is being crowded out by logging, development
and environmental degradation. While some groups of Sami -- as
suggested by TNS for Communities -- are transitioning to an economy
based on eco-tourism, the growth of that phenomenon isn't necessarily
socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. If the
traditional Sami culture dies, then this movement has failed.
While there are obvious technological
fixes to some of our environmental woes -- like wind energy and
electric vehicles -- solving the issues of institutional racism
are not specifically addressed by the Natural Step. Still, I
believe TNS for Communities does hold several important pearls
of wisdom for all cultures.
* Begin and guide a planning
process with a community-defined vision of a desired future (set
goals; involve residents in the process).
* Combine vision, planning,
and action from the start and throughout the planning process
(assess alternatives and choose the best one; pick the low-hanging
fruit and dive into real projects that improve lives).
* Include the full range of
community interests, values, and perspectives in a meaningful
way (involve those most affected; use open, democratic decision-making).
* Plan in cycles, not just
one linear pass (learn from your mistakes and oversights; correct
course accordingly).
* Focus on finding agreement,
not on resolving disagreement (consider the positive).
* Lead from the side (involve
those most affected: let residents be the experts).
There is mounting evidence
that the Nordic model -- including Sweden and Finland -- of free
education, affordable healthcare, and cradle- to-grave social
services COMBINED with high rates of investment in industrial
research and development produces a high standard of living and
a vibrant economy.
As we begin to acknowledge
that the social determinants of health are MORE important than
purely environmental factors, those of us who are building a
movement for a sustainable urban environment have much to learn
from the Natural Step and the eco-village movement.
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